I though I would start a new post off about things you may pass everyday in shields and never take any notice of, here is my first one and i think that maybe Jerry might get this one, its a structure on shields beach next to the little have hotel, i have placed a red circle around the bit I am talking about, at this moment in time you can only see it from the air but a couple of months ago the sands had moved so you could see it on the ground, I went down to the seafront today to get a closer look but the sand had covered back over again

I've heard the seaplane story but there seems curiously little information about it.

The Arbeia Society booklet doesn't mention it but says:

'The present survey, in collaboration with the University of St Andrews Institute of Marine Studies identified a stone pier rising 1 metre above the sea bed on the Herd Sand two thirds of the way between the Groyne and the South Pier. This is as yet undated but was unknown prior to this survey and requires further investigation.'

yep thats what i think, i once saw a vey old picture of the aeroplane hanger / hut and it was prob in that location, at the moment the whole thing is under the sand, but a few months ago you could walk down the outline

I have a gazette cutting from about 20 years ago with some details of the sea plane base, and mentions that you can see the remains of the ramp at low tide on spring tides, it gives some vague dates stating the hangers were pulled down around the late 1920s Also there is a small picture of the harbour and hangers, the article is quite long and has some recollections from and old aquaintance of mine Bos Whittaker, I will post the cutting once my broadband is back, hopefully next Friday.

if it's a pipe ..the likelihood is that it is for waste from nearby dwellings
only its shorter than the ones now ..remember how bad all the local beaches were for S H to the one T ..at Roker they built geet long pipes to push to effluent further out ..ah such is progress !!!!